ARM Offers Total System Design With Introduction Of New Cores And Pre-validated Platform

Cambridge, UK – Oct. 14, 2002 – ARM [(LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions, today announced significant new technologies in the drive to bring next-generation consumer, wireless and networking devices to the market place. ARM has introduced two new microprocessor cores, the ARM1136J-S™ core and the ARM1136JF-S™ core, and a new development solution, the ARM11™ PrimeXsys™ Platform.

With this announcement, ARM is offering a new industry approach to system design by offering a total solution that includes not only microprocessor cores but also a system-on-chip (SoC) platform with pre-ported operating systems and development tools that support the integration of new microprocessor technology into complex microchips. The ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform has been developed with the specific goal of meeting the challenges that SoC developers face when integrating microprocessor cores.

The total support offered by delivering the new cores and the ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform at the same time gives developers a suite of pre-validated software and hardware that saves on cost and effort, and reduces time-to-market.

"The landscape for complex microchips is increasingly competitive. For chip designers this means striving to reduce development times and costs to beat the competition to market. Total solutions, such as tightly integrated microprocessor cores and supporting development tools, will help our Partners to achieve this goal and deliver better products," said Mike Inglis, EVP Marketing, ARM. "Our Partners have recognized that quicker and less costly development is key and we have addressed this with the launch of the total ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform and ARM1136 microprocessor cores solution. Total design solutions is a trend that will continue and ARM is leading the way."

"Platforms clearly provide many benefits to chip designers. A pre-verified integrated unit consisting of processor, peripherals, bus structure and operating system can save a lot of time in the design of a chip. The concept not only demonstrates design reuse, but more importantly verification reuse," said Jim Tully, chief analyst, Gartner.

The ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform provides all of the hardware, software and verification tools for system developers designing an SoC for smart digital devices running an Operating System (OS). The hardware is tightly integrated with the ARM1136 microprocessor cores and its software development tools include extendable software models of the platform that allow software designers to work in parallel with the hardware designers. This makes the ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform the best possible starting point for any ARM11 core-based designs. The ARM1136 cores offer superb performance at small size, and low power, making them ideal for applications such as digital cameras, 2.5 and 3G mobile phones and voice-over-IP (VoIP) infrastructure equipment and broadband modems residential gateways, WLAN access points and security devices. The ARM1136JF-S core also incorporates a floating-point coprocessor, making it perfect for 3D graphics, games, automotive and embedded control applications.

Both the new ARM11 cores are based on the ARM11 microarchitecture, which ARM announced in April 2002, and the microarchitecture itself is based on the ARMv6 instruction set architecture, which was announced in October 2001.

Licensees of the new cores will be announced later this week at the Microprocessor Forum, San Jose, Calif.

Availability
The ARM11 PrimeXsys Platform and both the ARM1136J-S and the ARM1136JF-S cores are available now for licensing from ARM.

About ARM
ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals and system-on-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions.

ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. ARM11, ARM1136J-S, ARM1136JF-S and PrimeXsys are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; and ARM China.